Underworld (Widescreen Special Edition)

The movie, as most of you probably know, is about a war that has been going on between werewolves and vampires. And it is THIS that is the primary focus of the plot (as opposed to the vampires and werewolves themselves). The werewolves have been researching their bloodlines and discovered a human who shares a common ancestor with both the werewolves and the vampires. The werewolves seek out this human, and this is noted by Selene (Kate Beckinsale), who decides to make it her mission to discover the importance of this particular human.

Unfortunately, the writers decided not to delve too deeply into vampire and werewolf lore. I was pretty disappointed by the fact that the supernatural abilities of these supernatural beings were not really emphasized. Instead, the writers chose to merely stick guns in the hands of the vampires and werewolves. In addition, the mythology was slightly different from what I've read and seen before in previous vampire and werewolf books and movies. I don't necessarily have a problem with that, but if you are going to change things from what people are used to, then it should be explained in slightly more detail.

Another thing that was a little disappointing were the effects. The previews led me to believe that the movie would be comparable to the "Matrix" in that department. Unfortunately, the best effects (with the one exception of the werewolf transformations) were all shown in the previews.

All of this aside, the movie was still pretty incredible. The plot was exceptional, which is not necessarily always the case with most action movies, and the action kept me entertained throughout the movie's entirety. The make-up and costumes were also outstanding, as was the acting. I actually saw this movie twice, and the second time around (once I got over the intial let-down of it being slightly different from what I expected) it was MUCH better. I anxiously await the sequel (and based on how the movie ended, there WILL be a sequel) as well as the DVD release!


Underworld Unrated rocks on Blu-Ray!   September 27, 2007
J. Torres (Bay Area, CA)
18 out of 20 found this review helpful

This movie really looks great on Blu-Ray with an AVC encode and the PCM lossless audio is excellent. By the way this movie is also region free (Regions A, B & C) so people can import this if they want to.


Good fun action flick that shines on Blu-ray   October 30, 2007
Michael Lynn (Abbeville, Alabama United States)
11 out of 11 found this review helpful

Being a fan of the Underworld series as well as the lovely Kate Beckensale, I had to purchase this movie on blu-ray. I have this movie on every format except vhs. All I have to say is that this movie looks and sound awesome on blu-ray. If you want good demo material get this movie, you will not be disappointed.


Extra Underworld! With even more extras!   January 13, 2006
Ian Langford (Cwmbran, Gwent, United Kingdom)
18 out of 21 found this review helpful

Okay, The DVD here is the Unrated edition, but as a bonus, you get a special preview disc for Underworld Evolution, containing, the new trailer, a 'making of' documentary, a preview of the Evolution comic and a DVDrom link for the website.
I loved the original film; and the Unrated version is even better with more footage, different commentary tracks and completely different extra features from the original release on both discs!
The only downside to buying this set is if you already have the unrated edition, (Guilty) then the DVD is the exact same one, you just get the attached 'Bonus disc' as 'one more extra'.


Underworld in Superbit   November 25, 2004
dcinDC (Washington, DC United States)
33 out of 41 found this review helpful

I'm sure there are many reviews about this movie under the regular release. I'll comment a bit specifically about the superbit version that costs more for higher quality video and audio (without the extras on the disk). To really get any advantage here you need to have a digital TV (preferably HD but ED will probably work too), a DVD player that puts out a progressive signal (vs. interlaced), and a component or digital connection between your DVD player and TV. IMO if you don't have all three of these you won't get the benefit of Superbit and should save your money.

This was my first Superbit disk, so I had high expectations. I'd say there's good news and bad news here. The good news is that I do think the picture is visibly better. There is definitely more detail and you can seem more subtle features (texture, reflections, etc.) in the picture. This also helps some of the dark scenes (many in this movie) with more visible detail. The bad news is that there's so much more detail that you can see the grain of the film. I know that's normal for a movie shot on film and it doesn't really bother me (unless I'm looking for it). However, I do think it detracts slightly from the perceived quality of the picture. Compare this, for example, to a movie shot in digital and you'll see what I mean. I'm sure there's some debate over what defines good picture quality so YMMV here. Finally, the sound is excellent on this DVD, but I can't say that it's significantly better than on the original release over a Dolby Digital system.

So, in the end I'd say that Superbit is great if you really love a movie and want the best PQ you can get for it. I think that Superbit is probably better for older movies that they can clean up for DVD transfer than for newer movies with a decent original DVD transfer.

Remember that if you want all the extras you won't get them on Superbit. My one complaint about this specific DVD is that they used the theatrical release rather than the (now available) director's cut.

Hope this is helpful!